Submission dr247 Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House Inc Access to Justice Arrangements Public inquiry

21.5 Is the service delivery model the right one?

There is strong support for the current mixed model

The Commission acknowledges mixed service delivery models: ‘the LACs utilise a mix of inhouse and private practitioners, and the CLCs a mix of inhouse and pro bono and volunteer services.’ The PILCHs are also CLCs.
The Commission refers to research in other jurisdictions that shows that legal aid bureaucracies are more efficient providers than private lawyers, but acknowledges the benefit in addressing conflicts. Approaching this issue purely in economic terms could see private firms withdrawing from this market (as has occurred at other times), resulting in the loss of the important involvement of the profession in areas of law that impact on disadvantaged people. There is considerable cross-fertilisation between the LACs, CLCs and the private profession that adds value to the work of all and exploits the best skills available.
By reserving more complex casework that require specialist assistance for CLCs and LACs and outsourcing other matters to the private profession, costs should be able to be appropriately apportioned to obtain the greatest efficiencies and retain the good features of the mix.
… but there are some recruiting and retention issues

It can be true that CLCs have retention problems (the LACs and private profession can have similar problems), though it varies usually as a result of external circumstances. QPILCH for example currently has a relatively stable workforce. Most of the deficiencies highlighted on p. 650 of the draft report are counterbalanced by an enthusiasm and dedication to service that characterises most CLC employees. While this is also true for most people who work in the legal assistance sector generally, there is definitely a greater preparedness to put up with the deficiencies in order to “make a difference”. The energy and enthusiasm of CLC staff members should be captured and retained, not discounted as unimportant.

As the Commission acknowledges, legal aid rates are determined by government funding. While a graduated scale based on complexity may attract more private practitioners, there will still be limits. For example, it is difficult to see the private profession assisting extensively in mental health law, where client needs are particularly variable and challenging.

21.6 Does the distribution of funds need changing?

The Commission states at p. 653:

Commonwealth funding for LACs is distributed between the states and territories based on a model that attempts to reflect legal need and the costs of providing services in particular jurisdictions/areas. However, as discussed in section 21.3, the distribution of CLC funding is largely based on history, with the added feature of adhoc grants.

For the reasons outlined earlier, we disagree that CLC funding has been largely based on history. However, we do agree that additional grant funding has occurred on an ad hoc basis. Nonetheless, we support an allocation based on need, but suggest that location should be just one element of the assessment process.

Distribution of CLC funding — historical rather than needs based

The Commission’s discussion in this section ignores the importance of on-the-ground knowledge, suggests there has been waste and duplication and unnecessary servicing as a result of this ‘historical’ funding. In our view, this is far from the case.
Most CLCs are very targeted, very efficient, cost effective and in great demand.
The Commission considers that ‘historybased funding has meant that funders have not needed to consider whether the funding allocations are appropriate (except when there is ‘new’ money)’ but acknowledges this is not now the case at the Commonwealth level. This has also changed in Queensland following the review of LPITAF in 2012-13.
As stated earlier, for the record, priorities have always been determined by government and many locations have also been determined by politicians. For many years, QAILS has recommended needs based funding and individual CLCs have lobbied for services based on observation of need if not clearly accessible data.
Importantly, the Commission states:
Without a consistent and coordinated approach to distributing legal assistance dollars, it is likely that there will be both duplication of services and gaps in services.
We agree with and support this view. The Commission then concludes:
A new funding allocation model for CLSP funding is required to better reflect need. The Commission considers that it is better to approach this issue systematically rather than continue to rely on a ‘bottom up’ approach which depends on a motivated individual or group of individuals first identifying need and then applying for a grant to the CLSP.
In response, we suggest that there is need for both top down and bottom up approaches that work on a cooperative basis through the new coordinating mechanisms discussed in this paper.

Reform options

Draft recommendation 21.4: the commonwealth government should:

discontinue the current historicallybased Community Legal Services Program (CLSP) funding model

employ the same model used to allocate legal aid commissions funds to allocate funding for the CLSP to state and territory jurisdictions

divert the Commonwealth’s CLSP funding contribution into the National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services and require state and territory governments to transparently allocate CLSP funds to identified areas of ‘highest need’ within their jurisdictions. Measures of need should be based on regular and systematic analyses in conjunction with consultation at the local level.
The Commission is highly critical of the historical approach as if it alone is the cause of duplication and gaps. The current array of CLCs around Australia is not bad per se. There may be need for some tweaking, but most are fulfilling essential services for their communities and for the most disadvantaged in those communities.
What is good needs to be preserved, so we support the continuation of the recurrent funding of CLCs that meet community and government expectations.
Gaps in services cannot be addressed by simply diverting funds from allegedly bloated areas to under-serviced places or issues. To do so will potentially leave those communities under-serviced.
We do not believe that NACLC or any CLC is wedded to the historical funding model. But we are wedded to the idea of consistent and sufficient funding in order to meet the legal needs of our communities, whether state-focused or local community or community of interest.
There is clear room in our view for the retention of a separate funding pool that maintains existing CLC services, subject to review, and permits the funding of new services to fill gaps when funding becomes available.
We also reiterate our suggestion, which appears to mirror the NACLC approach, for the establishment of a new funding pool to address demonstrated unmet need and to promote innovation in service delivery.
We had initially made this suggestion to AGD when it was considering the nationalisation of the profession. The establishment of such a fund, with input to decisions from all four providers is consistent with our view that only through cooperation and coordination can the most effective use of scarce funds be maximised. Our view is that the group that makes recommendations for distribution of this project fund could also be the national level body that coordinates other aspects of the system, including making recommendations in relation to the main CLC pool, having input into priority development, working with state and territory coordinating bodies and coordinating research about legal need to feed into the funding process.
We agree that with input from the body referred to in the preceding paragraph, the LAC funding allocation model could assist in the allocation of CLSP funding across jurisdictions.
We support the option where the Commonwealth’s CLSP funding could be diverted into the NPA to allow the state and territory governments to directly manage the CLSP, however with required input from the state and territory based coordinating bodies. It is imperative however that the CLSP is separated from LAC funding.

How do you decide ‘who’ represents the best value for limited dollars?

Information request 21.3: The Commission seeks feedback on how community legal centre (CLC) funds should be distributed across providers while at the same time ensuring providers are of sufficient scale and the benefits of the historic community support of CLCs are not lost. Competitive tendering might be one possible method for allocating funds. The commission seeks feedback on the costs and benefits of such a process and how they compare with the costs and benefits of alternative methods of allocating CLC funding.
The Commission states:
One approach to deciding which organisations should get access to the limited amount of funding available to provide public legal assistance services is to develop ‘collaborative partnerships’ between communitybased providers and governments to enable them to take joint responsibility for successfully delivering services efficiently and effectively (Shergold 2013). This service sector reform canvassed by Shergold involves progressively consolidating (or linking) multiple funding streams to give service providers greater flexibility to pursue integrated outcomes. A ‘collaborative partnerships’ approach would be underpinned by an outcomes framework that would establish benchmarks against which performance would be audited, monitored, measured and reported over time.
We support this approach.
The Queensland Government has already undertaken a review of Queensland CLCs through its review of LPITAF. Existing services should be maintained until they are shown to be ineffective. Services should not be closed other than if they do not meet the needs for which they were established or are no longer needed in their community.

We strongly reject the idea of competitive tendering. It has not worked in the past and has prevented cooperation, the linchpin of an effective system.

On p. 18 of the draft report, the Commission acknowledges that because the justice “system is adversarial, so there is little incentive to cooperate”. In the same vain, if it becomes policy that service providers must compete for funding, then cooperation will suffer.
Commodifying free legal services will lead to a two-tiered system where services that can produce a profit or undertake large volume work will be capitalised and prioritised, leaving individuals with complex and special needs without sensitive holistic assistance.
Legal services are a necessity in that they protect the necessities of housing, employment, opportunity and environmental protection among others. Opening legal assistance services to the profit maximising market will destroy the heart of legal services, which while struggling to meet demand are responding creatively. The energy and creativity of CLC employees needs to be harnessed.
While the amalgamation of services may have been useful in SA, Queensland is too large for such an approach to have easy application. It also suggests that big is always best. There may be other less disruptive ways to increase efficiency for smaller centres through co-location etc. Developing partnerships and extending specialist services to new places and finding innovative responses is a far better option.
The Commission stated:
The historic community support base, and the ongoing inkind contributions via pro bono and volunteers that have been developed by many CLCs may also warrant the longerterm model of engagement, which is inherent in a joint venture approach. However, joint venture models can be resourceintensive, require a high degree of flexibility, funding certainty and agreed evaluation protocols (chapter 22).
With funding certainty through a modified but stronger CLSP, CLCs are well suited to the partnership and joint venture approach.
As stated earlier, competition between LAQ and CLCs has already occurred in Queensland, creating a suspicious and uncooperative culture which has taken years to mend. We believe that implementation of Commission’s view to permit such competition would undermine cooperation and turn back the clock.
We repeat that big is not necessarily better (or more efficient) in the provision of sensitive legal assistance for disadvantaged people and importantly, the forced amalgamation of CLCs into larger bureaucracies will damage many of the important features that CLCs offer.

21.7 Is the quantum of funding adequate?

Information request 21.4: The Commission seeks feedback on the extent of, and the costs associated with, meeting the civil legal needs of disadvantaged Australians, and the benefits that would result.
As mentioned above, we support retention of the current indexed CLSP pool with provision for an increase in the size of the pool based on the range of indicators used to assess the level of funding for the LACs. Of course adopting this approach does not bind governments, which will reduce the size of the pool from time to time. However, as discussed earlier, the establishment of a managed project fund can permit the seeding of research to consider new services, help buttress against economic vagaries, help establish new services and develop innovative ideas, through a structured process - a legal services futures fund.

21.8 How well do the governance arrangements work?

Draft recommendation 21.5: The Commonwealth and the state and territory governments should renegotiate the national partnership agreement on legal assistance services (following the current one expiring) and seek agreement on national core priorities, priority clients, and aligned eligibility tests across legal assistance providers.
Subject to what we have said earlier in relation to ‘aligned eligibility tests’ and our submission that representatives of all service providers should be included in these negotiations, we also strongly recommend that the Productivity Commission adds to this process the review of the current accountability reporting requirements as outlined in chapter 1 of this paper, many of which add cost and are voluminous, unnecessary and pointless for accountability purposes. The current processes have not changed for years and have built up in an ad hoc way. They can be simpler and achieve greater accountability at the same time if service providers have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion of this issue.
Chapter 23: Pro bono services
Draft Recommendation 23.1

Where they have not already, all jurisdictions should allow holders of all classes of practicing certificate to work on a volunteer basis. Further, those jurisdictions that have not done so already should introduce free practicing certificates for retired or career break lawyers limited to the provision of pro bono services either through a Community Legal Centre or a project approved by the National Pro Bono Resource Centre. This could be modelled on the approach currently used in Queensland.

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  For those not providing court representation, persons eligible for admission as an Australian lawyer coupled with a practising certificate that has expired within the last three years (without any disciplinary conditions) should be sufficient to provide pro bono work, particularly if the service is supervised.
  

QPILCH supports this draft recommendation.

Information request 23.1

Would there be merit in exploring further options for expanding the volunteering pool for Community Legal Centres (CLCs)? For example, are there individuals with specialised knowledge that could provide advice in their past area of expertise such as retired public servants or retired migration agents, that CLCs could draw on in the relevant area? Are there currently any barriers to prevent this?
A key barrier to participation has been continued maintenance of registrations and qualifications.
This could to some extent be addressed through Draft Recommendation 23.1 but could also be expanded to include Migration Agent and any other relevant registrations.
QPILCH has made several attempts to attract retired legal practitioners and professionals from other fields such as accountants. This is a resource which has been under utilised. So far QPILCH has had only limited success.
Draft Recommendation 23.2

The Commonwealth Government, and the remaining states and territories, should adopt the Victorian Government’s use of a pro bono ‘coordinator’ to approve firms undertaking pro bono action. The coordinator should be situated within the Department with primary responsibility for legal policy.
QPILCH supports this draft recommendation.
Information Request 23.5

The Commission is seeking views on methods to implement data collection on pro bono services without increasing unnecessary reporting burdens. Are there ways to better utilise existing sources? Can reporting be standardised? Are there existing social impact metrics (or categories of outcome) that should be adopted? How would data collection best be done in a systemic manner? Who should collect the data?
The pro-bono coordinators – the PILCHs - collect information on the services, facilitated by them. The PILCHs are mostly also CLS’s and report the voluminously on what they do and on the pro bono work they coordinate. This reporting uses the same systems as is used by all CLC’s and data is collected CELS. The PILCH annual reports also provide extensive quantitative and qualitative information about the pro bono work of the profession as does the National Pro bono Resource Centre.
Chapter 24: Data and Evidence
Draft Recommendation 24.1

All governments should work together and with the legal services sector as a whole to develop and implement reforms to collect and report data (the detail of which is outlined in this report).

To maximise the usefulness of legal services data sets, reform in the collection and reporting of data should be implemented through:

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  adopting common definitions, measures and collection protocols
  
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  linking databases and investing in deidentification of new data sets
  
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  Developing, where practicable, outcomes based data standards as a better measure of service effectiveness.
  

Research findings on the legal services sector, including evaluations undertaken by government departments, should be made public and released in a timely manner.
Draft recommendation 24.2

As part of draft recommendation 24.1, existing data systems should be overhauled so that providers can track outcomes for intensive users of legal assistance services over time.
Draft Recommendation 24.3

The Commission recommends that the LAW Survey, or a survey of similar scope and detail, be undertaken on a regular basis at least every 5 years. The results of, and underlying data from such surveys should be made publicly available.
QPILCH supports draft recommendations 24.1, 24.2, 24.3
Information request 24.1

The Commission seeks feedback on where a data clearinghouse for data on legal services should be located. Such a clearinghouse needs to be able to coordinate data collection from multiple civil justice stakeholders and disseminate the information in a timely fashion. It should also have some expertise in linking, using and presenting data, especially administrative data. Ideally, the clearinghouse should also have experience in liaising with legal service providers and different levels of government, have an understanding of the operation of the civil justice system and understand the principles behind benchmarking.
QPILCH recommends that the body, recommended by QPILCH earlier supported by a unit within AGD be charged with data collection analysis and dissemination.